History 101 with Professor Showalter
Baltimore manager Buck Showalter introduced Orioles prospect Josh Hart to franchise great Frank Robinson this week.
Was Hart impressed? Well, not at first. Hart, 19 and the 37th overall pick in the 2013 draft, didn’t know who Robinson was.
Showalter went to unusual lengths to rectify that.
“I said, ‘OK, I want tomorrow by this time … a page on Frank Robinson,’” said Showalter, the son of a high school principal. “I said, ‘You go home, you research it and you come back tomorrow and have it on my desk.’”
Hart complied. And what did he learn?
Robinson helped the team to four World Series. He won the Triple Crown in 1966. He was the only man to win the MVP in both leagues (Reds, 1961 & Orioles, 1966). He was the first black manager in major league history (Indians, 1975). And in 1982 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“I knew he was a Hall of Famer, but specifically, I didn’t know anything about him,” Hart said, “but I did my research and he’s accomplished a lot.”
Well, yeah.
Twins
Miguel Sano, 20, the prized free-agent slugger from the Dominican Republic who the Pirates lost out on when he signed with Minnesota in 2009, will miss the season after it
Giants
was determined he must have Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. Sano hit a combined 35 home runs last season between Class A and AA while batting .280 with 103 RBIs. He originally hurt his elbow playing winter ball in October.
For years, San Francisco has fought the Oakland A’s ambition to build a new stadium in San Jose, arguing that the area falls under the Giants’ territorial rights. That story took a twist this week when CEO Larry Baer made a surprising admission to the San Jose Mercury News. He said the Giants wouldn’t be opposed to temporarily sharing AT&T Park with the A’s while they build a new stadium — provided the Athletics aren’t building in San Jose. “They’ve got to come up with a long-term plan,” Baer said. “Once that’s arrived at, then maybe you’ll take a step back and say, ‘Is there something we can do to be helpful?’ As a neighborly thing.”
Rangers
A “rookie” will be in Rangers’ camp Monday and he’ll likely attract more attention than Yu Darvish, Prince Fielder and Elvis Andrus combined. That sort of thing happens when the rookie in question just helped his team to victory in the Super Bowl. Texas selected Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson from the Colorado Rockies in the AAA portion of baseball’s December draft at the winter meetings and so now own the rights to Wilson, who played parts of two minor league seasons while figuring out his athletic future. Wilson is expected to participate in a team workout and then be in uniform for an exhibition game.
Around the diamonds
Masahiro Tanaka entered in the fifth inning and pitched two shutout innings in his Yankees debut — a 4-0 win against the Phillies in Tampa, Fla. Tanaka allowed two hits and struck out three. … Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun, in his first action since being suspended for the final 65 games of 2013 for his part in the Biogenesis scandal, was booed lustily in his spring debut in Phoenix, but produced a single and a walk as a Brewers split squad beat the Dodgers, 6-5. … Mike Fontenot knocked in four runs and Tyler Moore three as Washington outslugged Atlanta, 16-15, in Viera, Fla.